Tonight all the spirits come out and dance
Tonight all the beasts jump around and prance
Tonight we join that ancient Celtic trance
From Japan to America to Johannesburg to France

The spirits and fairies walk the earth tonight
As we watch and tell stories to induce fright
As werewolves and zombies come out into the light
And all of the witches shall do as they might

So happy Hallows eve, wherever you are
Be it in a haunted hedge or a ship in the stars
From the days of the first druids to those of flying cars
Let us all, human or not, come out to laugh, sing, and roar

"Why does this matter?"
What? What do you mean....
"Why would people be interested in this?
What use would it have in real life?"
I'm not sure
But why should that matter?
Was Einstein thinking of who would care
When he thought up E=MC2
No. He wasn't.
I can tell you for a fact
That when he came up
With his relative theory
He was staring out of his window
And wondering
"What would happen if a man fell down
Inside a rapidly falling elevator?"

OK, but I get that you're trying to emphasize
Why people should care about science
So that the slackers in the class
Might become interested
In the project
So I won't catalog plant species
By concentrations
In different areas

"How will you control this?"
What? What do you mean?
I literally wrote out the variables.
"If you can't make the conditions
Exactly the same,
If you can't make sure
That someone could do exactly as you did,
The experiment isn't viable."

So, you're telling me
That even though
Comparing the air qualities
In different places
To see if any one place has inherently better air quality
Is not a viable experiment
Because if the wether
Is so much as one degree different
When someone else
Tries to test it
It will skew the results
So severely
That no one can
Make heads or tails of it?

Ok, I guess I'll just test stain removers on ink
Because I need a midterm grade

There are people
Who deny the validity
Of friends made through
An intangible reality

There are people
Who say what we do
Doesn't matter here
That the internet isn't true

What these people miss
And what we can see
Is that there are people
Behind the monitor screen

To them, a computer
Is machinery and numbers
Just a high tech tool
Their feelings couldn't be number

To them, what they see
Ends with the screen
Or maybe with software
Or hardware that can be seen

But to us, however
We look at that screen
And we know that
There's more to be seen

Behind each window
For those of us who know
Are people to talk to
And friendships yet to grow

To us, a screen
Is not a dead machine
But three billion people
Yet to be seen

We know each code, site
Video, blog, or post
Is the work of a person
And not some electronic ghost

We don't care
Where you are in the world
Our bonds are as valid
As those pen pals of old

So while people may
Just brush us away
We know our world
Is as real as our words

Some say you can know someone
From the contents of their purse
From their favorite music
Or what they want to take with them in a hearse

I say it's a far simpler method
To just look at one's search history
Which is why I messed around with the settings
And made my Google tracks a mystery

What do you see?
What do you think of me?
Honors student, violinist
Maybe a future scientist
You'd never guess
When we'd first meet
That the girl I am
Is more than the one you greet
Get to know me
And you might see
The true person beneath
The apearance bequeathed

After a good shower
Everything seems better
There's just something about
Being clean and hair that's weter

The thunder is the click
The lightning is the flash
The storm takes a picture
For the universe's dash

My favorite juxtaposition
Is when a city goes totally silent
When the widest streets are empty
And the only sounds are quiet

The bustling stores are still closed
And no one else is walking around
The city looks amazingly different
With only a few men in the ground

The buildings stand tall and silent
While those up late tuck in for the night
And the earliest risers have yet to awake
To meet the ever blinking lights

The signs are as bright as ever
And the lights still work 'round the clock
But not a single bike, car, or man
Can be seen on the city block

I stand on the silent street corner
Feeling the moment rush through me
For stunningly empty cities
Are some of my favorite places to be

I am of the opinion
That throwing shade will always be
Best carried out if the other
Is left wondering what you mean

And though I don't do it too often
I've done it to a certain degree
In a project, I dissed school with Emerson quotes
And, in the end, our group got over a B

Through glass panes
A dime of blue
The light leaves me wondering:
"What else will I do?"

How can I ever get to sleep
When my mind is always screaming?
And for what reason should I sleep
When I am always dreaming?

For all of my coastie dad's wisdom
My summers spent learning to sail
My affinity for swimming since I was three
The countless snorkeling trips
The hours spent in canoes and kayaks
The trips paddle boarding and whitewater rafting
Somehow
I'm still petrified
By the rushing numbered current
Of a digital stream

Like a black anaconda
I lose my breath to your grip
In a moment of delight

Follow your dreams
Unless they're weird
Stand up for yourself
But don't start a fight
Be yourself
Unless you're different
Belive in yourself
But authority is always right

Your eyes shine brighter
Than the milky way veiwed from Shenandoah
And twinkle more
Than all of the attacks and special effects in anime

This place is now an empty shell
A remnant of my changing self
A colored, gilded chrysalis
That hides what beneath is amiss
And yet I still feel this passion
But in a muted, far fashion
As the strange lights overhead drone
A growing des're to go home

Spring has many calling signs
Like flowers and birds and sun
Or getting home to find
Thirty cars at your neighbor's for fun

For every spring and summer
The family across the street
Plays mariachi louder than a speaker
With their entire extended family to greet

With Virginia's second largest student population
Four thousand, five hundred, twenty eight kids looking for
Companionship in a confined quarter mile
You would think that it would be quite simple to
Find a person to spend your days around
You would think that it would be simple
To find someone whom you have an
Interest in knowing
To find somebody
With whom you have
Friendship or
Maybe
Love

Musical standmates share
A special type of bond
Not one of friendship or love
But of knowing where things belong

You learn how to adjust the stand
So that it's the perfect height
How to turn a chair, pick up a bow
So it goes well on concert night

You also learn how they speak
(My stand partner loves bad puns)
And how to reply back to them
(With all the memes under the sun)

We danced around in the stardust
With only a vacuum and photons between us

And as the queen began to form
It was then our land was born

And as she grew in power and energy
We found in asteroids a land of plenty

When we formed we were together
And it seemed as though the heat lasted forever

And then one day our brother came
And split apart what was the same

But our story did not end quite there
With magma scattering everywhere

When we came to we had reformed
Into two people we were born

And though at first it was quite strange
We came to love this sudden change

In the beginning, we were warm and bright
Our closeness yielded three hour nights

And as we cooled, we began to see
The differences developing in you and me

For as we slowed and grew apart
We became our own kinds of art

Your reddish film multiplied and changed
Into beasts and plants both wonderful and strange

I turned silver, with vast empty seas
Pure shining silver as far as one can see

And though we've slowed and now dance at arms length
We observe each other's beauty and give each other strength

For it is I and I alone who pulls at your tides
And incites those graceful apes to the madness each one hides

And you alone see the silver I reflect
With your green and blue body so fluid and perfect

And though our brother's push will one day throw us apart
I have your sweet carbon scent, and you my full silver art

Out of stardust from the sea
More than what we thought we'd be
We've come do far from sinew and bones
To our new computerized homes
Each time any tries to step back from nature
It pulls back, luring us closer
For as much as we live in this space
It lives in us, in every place

Friday night lights got me lit up in neon
The sound brings forth an etherial light
Galaxies are made in the great beyond
In the sound of underground bands tonight

It's natural to look down
But if you look up
An airbus night is
The best place to be starstruck

Ten seconds
Everything's normal

Thirty seconds
It's a little better

Fifty seconds
The headiness sets in

Sixty seconds
My chest is on fire

Eighty seconds
I contemplate life and what's after

Ninety seconds
My hand, tingling
Falls from my face
And I gasp in
Relieved
And dissapointed

I seem to be
Continually stuck

Between the worldviews
Of Bradbury and Hawking

Between schedules
Of eight million events and none at all

Between wanting to join in
And feeling like I shouldn't

Between wanting to do everything
And wanting to do nothing

Because even though I often speak
Of finding middle ground
When it becomes personal
It just can't seem to be found

Sirens yip and bark
Like frightened gazelles on a
Asphalt savanna

Children and teens howl
And laugh at games and parties
Like hyena packs

Cars and trucks rumble
Like lions lounging in the
Hot summer sunshine

Parents chatter in
The shade of oak trees, like a
Calm herd of zebras

Smoke rises in air
And all gather to the grill
Like a water hole

When I listen to a story
Be it in a theater or on a phone
I don't feel weird about how I feel
I know I'm not alone
Because at every other time
I'm not sure how to be
Because if I let it all out as-is
I'm certain I'd look crazy
But when I read a book or listen to a song
I know that all my bizzare thoughts belong
Because in the end, I'm a sucker for a story
Whether it's on pages or a silver screen

The greatest difference
In Nova and Dublin on
July afternoons
Is the rain's temperature

On hot summer days that strech ouy like this
Bird and bug song harmonized in the air
Cool water splashing with the sound of kids
Hearts start to be wild and do as wished
Leafed breezes blow away all hardened care
Creatures come from the dens in which they hid
As stars draw in like a smooth panther fur
And future folds out, bright and unsure
Music calls out in the dead of night
As all come out to camp, dance, chat, and play
We try our bravado and our own fright
As summer nights flow into the dog days

Sunset rolls in like a rainbow swan descending
Sweeping darkening colors over the rolling land
She raises both wings behind her at her landing
Showing her wing's plumes, painted by an artist's hand

The winter may soon be gone
Some ecosystems have started to go
Who knows what'll happen to crops and lawns
But at least we'll have sun glinting off snow

Middle School:
Somebody swears
Kids jump out of their chairs

High school:
Everyone swears
Nobody cares

What keeps me off the dating scene
Are the scars that will become seen

Some people look down upon them
Saying they have nothing good within
But I see it differently
In markups, I see
The person I was, am, and could've been

Just take me to the stars
So brilliant and so bright
What we were, what we are
Let's learn it all tonight

Let's fly up on past mars
From where we ran away
Healing Homeworld's old scars
We'll take you there someday

Yes, we come from the stars
But now we can't go back
Least not to open arms
For fear of an attack

But one day we'll show you
That land from where we came
But know that once we do
Things will not be the same

So let's go to the stars
Like diamonds in the sky
What we were, what we are
Up in a ship on high

Crickets chirp
Birds call
Wolves howl
Monkeys shreik
Dolphins whistle
Men speak
Singers sing

*And we write

Why
Am I
The target
Of your ire

When
I was
Not part of
Events transpir'd

Why
Do I
Find myself
Doing the same

As
If I
Didn't know
About such pain

The world is not only
The shining right light of white
And the depraved dark depths of black

I won't even go on
About the moral grey shades in between
Mottled like a city pigeon's tail feathers

Because there are
Royal eruditious blues
Mischievous swirled jades
Passionate scarlets
Playful tangarine oranges
Inoccent pastel yellows
Regal deep reds
Mysterious deep purples
Curious robin egg blues
Righteous yellow oranges
Tranquil summer greens
Bubbly social pinks
Patient shades of indigo
Cautious neon colors
Pure-hearted golds
Clear minded silvers
And ultraviolets of feelings yet to be defined

And if I'm looking at the world
I want to see it in full spectrum

I must've been more stressed than I seemed
Petting my dog, I released a guttural scream
I've been studying projectiles, calculus, and semantic ABCs
I just hope it's enough to get through the SATs

Looking at eyes an icy blue
One and two, claws strike true
Looking at a scene of mess and gore
Three and four, she won't see you anymore
Looking at that devil who once played tricks
Five and six, no wonder she's ******
Eyes start to close as life abates
Seven and eight, the night won't wait
For the love of her family and her friends
Nine and ten, could she ever start again